Boko Haram explains why they are bombing GSM companies, targets more primary schools.

The dreaded Islamic group (Boko Haram sect) has claimed responsibility for the massive attacks on telecommunication facilities in Borno, Yobe, Kano and Bauchi.
The group said the attacks on communication facilities will continue unabated because such companies are assisting the federal government and security agencies in tracking and arresting members of the group in many parts of the country.
The group said with the connivance of such companies, many of its members have been incarcerated in various prisons.
A statement written in Hausa and signed by Abul-Qaqa equally threatened attacks on the facilities of the Voice of America (VOA) as well as its correspondents and staff.
It was reported that more than 20 telecommunication masts of MTN, Airtel, Etilsalat and Glo have been set ablaze in Maiduguri and Bama in Borno State as well as Damaturu and
Potiskum in Yobe State on Tuesday.
The development hampered communication and affected business transactions in the affected place while many employees of the telecommunication companies have fled.
According to them “Our ultimate goal is the establishment of an Islamic State in Nigeria and we would not hesitate in taking punitive measures against anybody who sabotage or assist others that are sabotaging our efforts,” Qaqa said.
“This is why we are fighting the Nigerian government and its collaborators, including telecommunication companies. We would continue attacking them (telecoms) until the time they stopped releasing information about our activities.
“We have also established that through its various programmes, the VOA has launched a campaign of calumny against Islam. We have resolved to fight back by tracking and killing its employees. Any employee of the VOA that wants to remain alive must quit”.
  DailyPost.

Is the Presidency becoming desperate and jittery?

•Azuka Onwuka.

Three responses from the Presidency in the last one month have painted a picture of irritation, fear and desperation. The first was the response to the demand of the Islamic fundamentalist group, Boko Haram, on President Goodluck Jonathan to convert to Islam or resign as a precondition for their cessation of a reign of terror. The second was the cantankerous article by the Senior Special Adviser to the President on Media and Publicity, Dr. Reuben Abati, directed at the President’s social media critics. The third was the President’s comment at the 52nd Annual General Conference of the Nigerian Bar Association that he was the most criticised president in the world.
Starting from the first point, it is pertinent to ask: Did the Presidency need to respond to Boko Haram’s baseless demand for Jonathan to convert to Islam or resign? NO! By addressing the media on that issue, the Presidency created the impression that it did not have more serious and pressing issues to attend to.
That demand should have been completely ignored by the Presidency and all presidential aides and spokespersons. Even if Abati was asked by journalists to respond to that call, he should have replied that the President was too busy with important state matters to respond to such. The President should have left the matter to sympathetic groups and individuals to respond to. By responding to Boko Haram on the issue of conversion to Islam or resigning, Abati was simply according the faceless group authenticity and legitimacy and also telling the world that the Presidency was jittery and, even, petty. That was poor strategy.
If the Presidency responds to Jonathan’s arch-opponent in the April 2011 presidential election, Maj.-Gen. Muhammadu Buhari (retd), or Alhaji Lai Mohammed, the National Publicity Secretary of Nigeria’s leading opposition party, the Action Congress of Nigeria, or the Arewa Consultative Forum or Ohanaeze Ndigbo, he would be seen to be responding to people or groups with identity and fixed addresses. The case of Boko Haram was worsened by their demand. If the group had accused Jonathan of marginalising Northerners or Muslims or embarking on a Niger Delta or Christian agenda against the North or Muslims, then such a comment should necessarily have elicited a robust rebuttal by the Presidency with concrete evidence.
But the height of desperation and pettiness was displayed in Abati’s article, in which he used condescending and disdainful words on the social media critics of the President. Abati went further to defend accusations that no serious publication, broadcast station or individual had ever made. The accusations that Abati denied included that the President was not a drunk or a glutton. Unbelievable!
From where did Abati hear these accusations? From people that had no traceable addresses, people who gather on the web the way friends gather in beer parlours and social events to drink and exchange the latest jokes and gossips. Yet, the President’s special adviser on media and publicity spent several hours on an essay, simply meant to deny petty jokes against his principal and then pass the article to the media houses to publish. It was surprising that Abati did not also respond to all the jokes passed around about the President’s wife, to prove that he was an effective defender of the Presidency.
What Abati did was to publicise and give authenticity to beer parlour jokes and rumours. He simply made those who had never heard such jokes and rumours to hear them. And such people would begin to assume that there could be a modicum of truth in the jokes and rumours, given that the President’s spokesman went to great lengths to refute them. It was like the case of a man who was called impotent by another man when only two of them were present in a room. The man decided to go to court to prove that he was not impotent. In trying to save his name, he brought the news to millions of other people who never knew that such a rumour existed. Rather than going to court, the man should have ignored the man or asked the accuser to put him to test in the accuser’s household! End of story!
As if that was not bad enough, a day later, at the 52nd Annual General Conference of the Nigerian Bar Association, the President told the world that he was “the most criticised president in the world.” We never knew when the Guinness World Records conferred such an award on our President. That comment further confirmed that the President is very uncomfortable with the barrage of criticisms that he receives. It also confirmed that the President listens to all the gossips in the nation. His tone and words betrayed a president who is frustrated and irritated about the deluge of negative comments he receives.
The tragedy of this deficit of an effective communication strategy is that the Presidency has become reactive rather than proactive. Every time Jonathan or any of his spokesmen addresses the public now, rather than telling the nation the programmes and achievements of the President, they end up reacting to accusations upon accusations against the presidency. And the headlines of the media are usually taken from those reactive comments – which are usually open to many interpretations – while whatever programmes itemised are usually lost in the controversy generated by such hare-brained responses.
To say that the President’s communication strategy is middling is being euphemistic and charitable. It is known that the President does not have the gift of the garb. That deficit could have been compensated for by the quality of his communication team. But it is not clear if the problem is that Jonathan’s communication advisers are not advising him well, or that the President does not listen to advice, or that he is the one who decides what is to be communicated and how it should be communicated and simply directs his communication aides to execute such.
Whatever the problem is, the President’s middling communication has cost him much of the goodwill that saw him winning a presidential election in 2011 despite all the odds against him. Deep down the hearts of many Nigerians, they pray that President Goodluck Jonathan should succeed. The good news is that despite what the President has lost, he can still regain lost ground in a matter of months if he adjusts his communication strategy and makes it more proactive and inspiring than reactive and antagonistic or bitter.

Punch.

Asiwaju Goes to Charlotte By Pius Adesanmi.

Bola Tinubu clapping at the US Democratic convention in Charlotte, NC.

Asiwaju Bola Tinubu was at the just-concluded convention of the Democratic Party held in Charlotte. Glossy pictures are already circulating in social media. There is one of him clapping excitedly in the audience. There is another of him in an outside pose with one of his men Friday, Governor Kayode Fayemi of Ekiti state. On the surface, this is a good development. When a man of such enormous influence decides to come and observe and learn from the best democratic practices, the idea – only the idea – should be lauded. But observing and learning from the best practices in the world is an area in which Nigerian leaders and socio-political élite are not in good standing. Therefore, we need to know what Asiwaju and his entourage saw, heard, and learnt in Charlotte.
Indeed, Nigerians are eternally perplexed that the reproduction of modernity and postmodernity has remained rocket science for our political and social élite. Let me explain. If your understanding of the concrete expression of modernity and postmodernity lies in democracy, 21st century infrastructure, advancements in science and technology, and the creation of opportunities and a level playing field for the pursuit of happiness for the citizenry, you will discover that most non-Western societies – Japan, China, Singapore, South Korea, Malaysia, Dubai – that have achieved parity with or surpassed the West (especially in modern and postmodern infrastructure) have done so in great part by observing and copying.
Indeed, the spread of the developmental and infrastructural aspects of modernity and postmodernity beyond the West is a study in the ability of the excluded to observe, copy, and adapt the end product to local-cultural conditions and circumstances. Aware of the existence of such things in the West, the élite of these societies spent much of the 19th and 20th centuries copying and reproducing them for their own peoples.
A Japanese official sees the French TGV or German ICE (super rapid trains) and begins to think of how to out-perform the French and the Germans by producing a more modern Japanese version of the trains but a Nigerian official sees the same trains in Germany or France and begins to think of how to buy homes in Germany or France in order to spend summer enjoying those trains; a Dubai crown prince sees an architectural wonder in New York (it could be a mall) and rushes back home to the task of constructing something bigger for the people of Dubai but a Nigerian official sees the same mall in New York and hurries home to steal money to come and shop in that mall next summer; a Chinese official sees the German autobahn and hurries home in nationalistic anticipation because better roads must be constructed in China but a Nigerian Governor sees the same autobahn in Germany and begins to make discreet inquiries into how to buy shares in the German company that constructed the said autobahn. If German financial regulations allow him, he will return to Berlin next year with his entire security vote to buy shares in that German company.
The Nigerian élite is incapable of replicating anything they see abroad. What they take back to Nigeria are the worst aspects of Western behaviour. Hence they return to Asokoro or Lekki with their fake amala, akpu, or gworo-coated accents, supercilious airs, and acquired Western consumption patterns. I’ve been in high-end restaurants in Lagos while folks who don’t know the difference between Merlot and Rosé would come in, order wine and cuisine from a menu they can barely read, and discuss their last European vacation loud enough for everybody to hear.
This is all our élite take back to Nigeria when they come here and that is why Nigerians should be very interested in what Asiwaju saw in Charlotte and what he took back home. What did he learn about internal party democracy? What did he learn about the power of ideas over money? What did he learn from the zero violence in back to back conventions? What are his concrete plans to translate such lessons into concrete, verifiable results in his southwest fief in particular and in Nigeria at large? In the same vein, Nigerians should also be interested in the things Asiwaju did not see and did not hear in Charlotte. The list is endless but I’ll limit myself to three:
1. Asiwaju did not hear that any Governor of the states controlled by the Democratic Party is in permanent financial bondage to Bill Clinton.
2. Asiwaju did not hear that Governors of the Democratic Party have ever collectively used taxpayers’ money to fund Bill Clinton’s birthday celebrations.
3. Asiwaju did not hear that companies owned by Bill Clinton or in which Bill Clinton has substantial interest somehow manage to corner most of the contracts in states controlled by Governors of the Democratic Party. He did not hear that Bill Clinton’s companies are operating concessions and toll gates in any state controlled by the Democrats.
Now, over to you. What else do you think Asiwaju did not see or hear in Charlotte?

PDP "Broke" As Governors Turn Backs On Bamanga Tukur.

PDP chairman, Bamanga Tukur during the last PDP convention in Abuja.

 

By SaharaReporters, New York

Several sources at the headquarters of the Peoples Democratic Party have described the party as close to broke.

One source, who is a founding member of the party, told SaharaReporters that the poor state of the PDP’s finances forced officials to shelve any plans to organize a formal celebration of the 14th anniversary of the party’s existence.

Two of our sources attributed the party’s financial woes to a decision by several PDP governors to turn their backs on the Bamanga Tukur-led National Working Committee of the party. “Many of our governors are paying back President Goodluck Jonathan for imposing Dr. Bamanga Tukur as the national chairman,” said one source.

A member of the party’s NWC who spoke to our correspondent disclosed that he and his colleagues have been grumbling over the non-availability of funds to prosecute the party’s activities and programs.

“It is even difficult to receive their salaries,” said the source. Members of the party’s NWC had in June unilaterally fixed their salaries at scales that many governors reportedly criticized for being excessive. The NWC had fixed Mr. Tukur’s monthly salary at N2 million or approximately $15000. In addition, the deputy national chairman, Sam Jaja, was allocated N1.7 million per month; and the national secretary, Olagunsoye Oyinlola, N1.5 million per month.
Several other members of the National Working Committee were awarded salaries of N1.2 million each. Apart from Messrs Tukur, Jaja and Oyinlola, the party has 9 other persons as members of the NWC.
Our source within the NWC revealed that members now depend on cash gifts from a few friendly governors. “There are some governors who pay courtesy visits to the party headquarters once in a while, and they usually give us some funds,” said the NWC source.
The source cited the example of Governor Gabriel Suswam of Benue State who visited the party headquarters on Wednesday. He stated that Mr. Suswam gave some cash to party officials.

Our sources disclosed that the party’s cash flow crisis had rendered the party incapable of meeting numerous financial obligations to other organizations, including media houses.

Our correspondent learnt that the party had not been able to pay media houses which carried the obituary of its former National Youth Leader, Muyiwa Collins.  Mr. Collins died on Wednesday, January 12, 2011.

One source revealed that many party leaders were also unhappy with President Jonathan for setting up pseudo-groups that are unknown to the party’s constitution. “Mr. President has set up such alternative groups as Neighbor to Neighbor, Door to Door, as well as other pro- Jonathan/Sambo groups. The source said party officials at the Abuja headquarters were distraught that the president and vice president were now using these mushroom groups to pursue their political interests.

“We have never had it so bad,” said one official, a member of the NWC. He added, “Things are so bad to the extent that we cannot even party salaries of workers as and when due. It is indeed terrible.”

Poor leadership, cause of insecurity – Buhari.

Kabiru Dogon Daji.

inShare

General Muhammadu Buhari (rtd)

The presidential candidate of the Congress for Progressive Change (CPC), in 2011 general election, General Muhammadu Buhari (rtd), has attributed the prevailing insecurity situation in the country to injustice, bribery and corruption caused by poor leadership.

He made this assertion while addressing a mammoth crowd at the Halliru Abdu Stadium in Birnin Kebbi, the Kebbi state capital, where he flagged off campaigns for the local government election in the state slated for September 15, 2012.

According to him, governments at all levels were not living up to expectations because they have instituted corruption to be the order of the day which, he claimed, was responsible for the present predicament bedeviling the nation.

He added that unless something serious was done to avert the menace, “it is disheartening to note that corruption has killed every sector of the economy, especially in the petroleum sector that we now imports the commodity from other oil producing countries which clearly shows a sign of failure.”

He, however, called on CPC loyalists in the state to vote for the party in the forthcoming council election and to ensure their votes count.

Buhari, who presented the party flags to 16 chairmanship candidates of the party in the scheduled local council election, enjoined them to mobilise their supporters to ensure the party emerged victorious in the election.

Earlier, receiving the 2011 CPC presidential candidate at the Birnin Kebbi Government House, the state acting governor, Alhaji Ibrahim K. Aliyu, had thanked Buhari for the visit and assured that the state government has provided an enabling environment for all political parties participating in the poll.

The Imperative Of Unity Among Opposition Parties.

GARBA ALIYU USMAN.

By It is not enough for the opposition parties in Nigeria to seek to displace the ruling PDP in 2015 without doing the necessary ground work and building strategies to achieve that tough objective. No ruling party gives up power on a platter of gold, which makes the job harder for the opposition.
Entrenched in power for 14 years and enjoying the advantage of incumbency, do the opposition parties expect the PDP people to lower their guards and allow them take power just like that? As Bola Ahmed Tinubu of ACN once reminded General Buhari, the perceived disenchantment with the PDP is not automatically enough to remove the party from power unless the opposition parties work hard and work out good strategies to achieve the objective.
One of the onerous challenges facing the opposition parties is internal unity. The Congress for  Progressive Change (CPC) made a formidable start in 2010 and instantly became popular among the ordinary Nigerians. Unfortunately, however, the party’s national leaders introduced unpopular policies, such as the substitution and imposition of candidates which is currently the main cause of the bitter internal crisis facing the party.
Since the end of the 2011 general elections, the CPC leaders have been battling with the challenge of rebuilding and re-uniting the party. These efforts require sincerity and respect for internal democracy. Party members and supporters are still angry at the unjust policy of the imposition and substitution of candidates.
As a mark of commitment to unity, the party leadership should officially discard the policy of imposing candidates and disrespecting the choice of voters at the primaries. The CPC should not take unity for granted in order to effectively confront the PDP in 2015.
Despite these worries, one is however impressed by the recent show of unity among CPC supporters in Kano State last week when the party’s presidential candidate in 2011 general elections, Gen. Muhammadu Buhari, came to open the party’s head office in Kano.
Putting behind the bitterness of 2011, the party’s gubernatorial aspirant, Mohammed Abacha mobilised his supporters to welcome General Buhari to the event. In fact, the crowd was so huge that the General couldn’t find the space to come down from his car to carry out the event that brought him to Kano. He had to commission the office from his car because of the surging crowd that overwhelmed his vehicle.
Many people have openly hailed Mohammed Abacha for his commitment to the unity of the CPC. He is a pragmatic politician who believes that the unity of the party is greater than the ambition of any individual member. In fact, the mammoth crowd that turned up to receive General Buhari was a real sign of reconciliation and solidarity among CPC supporters in Kano State. The massive mobilisation of his supporters to welcome General Buhari demonstrates Mohammed Abacha’s unwavering loyalty to the party.
Commitment to a political party doesn’t end with the conclusion of elections. Mohammed Abacha is not like those politicians that desert their party once they lost the election and join the party in power for personal relevance and survival. If he was aspiring to be a governor in 2011 for personal gain, Abacha would have left CPC to join the winning party.
He didn’t do so because he joined the CPC with the firm conviction that it is a people-oriented party for change. At the opening at the party’s secretariat in Kano, the evidence of Mohammed Abacha’s popularity dominated the scene with chants of songs of solidarity with him. His popularity among the people was unmistakable even to the casual observer.
With many opposition parties, including APGA, crying out that the ruling PDP is allegedly behind their internal division, the event in Kano should serve as a starting point for CPC unity. Many of those who thought that Mohammed Abacha had parted ways with the party because of the way he was treated in 2011 must now be disappointed because their prediction fell flat.
The scale on which Mohammed mobilised his supporters to welcome General Buhari is a revelation to those seeking to capitalise on the internal division in the CPC to destroy it. What happened in Kano was a significant message to the ruling party that the CPC supporters and members are determined to stand together and bounce back.
It is, however, important at this point to remind the CPC national leaders that they must never rest on their oars until all factions and chapters of the party across the country are reconciled and re-united. They must reach out to Mohammed Abacha and embrace him. No political party should isolate and antagonise members and leaders with formidable grassroots support.
Mohammed Abacha has proved his detractors wrong that he is an opportunistic politician. If he was, he would have done what Senator Adamu Aliero did in Kebbi State by abandoning the CPC and going back to PDP for political survival. Abacha took his own initiative to mobilise his supporters to welcome General Buhari with open arms.
There were rumours that Mohammed Abacha and General Buhari were not on speaking terms. The event in Kano, however, had put to rest such insinuation. Despite the unfortunate events of 2011, Mohammed Abacha has always held General Buhari in high esteem. He regards the General as a father and therefore, no good son could have remained angry with his father without ultimately reconciling with him.
As the CPC prepares for the 2015 election, the party leaders should learn lessons from past mistakes. The people should be allowed to choose their own candidates at all levels. Imposition and substitution of candidates is inconsistent with democratic principles. The outcomes of primaries must be respected provided the elections are free and fair.
Party leaders have no business tampering with the results of elections to favour their own aspirants. In fact, as a party aspiring to be a better alternative to the ruling PDP, the CPC should set the highest standard of internal democracy by allowing justice, fairplay and a level playing field to prevail.

The Horizon By Kayode Komolafe.

Kayode.Komolafe@thisdaylive.com.

A Return to Malabo

Some alumni of  the University Calabar recently returned to their alma mater in a journey that was suffused with both nostalgia and projection. That was no surprise given the purpose of the gathering: the occasion was organised by the university to honour just a few of its many accomplished former students located in different parts of the world. These alumni were appointed Goodwill Ambassadors. The idea itself is a product of a synergy of purpose between the university management and the alumni association under the leadership of the energetic Kennedy Dike. Always exuding enthusiasm when discussing the progress of the university, Dike has explained that the goodwill ambassadors and indeed all alumni are expected“ to project the image of the university positively and also use their  positions to attract funding and projects to our alma mater”.   

The grand reception and awards were reasonably preceded by a tour of the campus in which the vice chancellor, Professor James Epoke, and other members of the university management laid bare the developmental problems and prospects of the institution. In sum,  the alumni saw on ground challenges in the form  a number of projects begging for actualisation or completion  such as the proposed complexes for the faculties of law, engineering and education. They also saw progress as Unical has since moved from being a campus of the University of Nigeria in 1975 with 500 students receiving tertiary education in the premises of the Duke Town secondary school.  The university began awarding its own degrees in 1980. Now, with over 32, 000 students in nine faculties and 54 departments the university has indeed come of age.

There are in addition three institutes and three directorates. In fact, a brand new campus has been built with new lecture theatres, auditorium, laboratories and an ultra-modern library equipped with digital facilities. The ICT Directorate ensures Internet services in every part of the campus including the halls of residence. With a large expanse of land still available for construction despite recent encroachment, the university still promises to be one of the most beautifully located campuses in the country. In a power-point presentation during the lunch the deputy vice chancellor (academic), Professor Austin Obiekezie, told the alumni that the geographical location offers “opportunities and challenges”. As Obiekezie, who was the first Ph.D. candidate of the university, reminded his audience in his presentation aptly entitled “Unical: Yesterday, Today and Tomorrow”, the campus is “one of the few to straddle a major river with direct access to the sea amid a lush mangrove habitat”.

For any visiting former student who was in Unical in the early days, a comparison of the campus today with the those days when a section of the campus was named Malabo is inevitable. By the  way, the name Malabo was given by the students  to the section of the campus where three of the male halls of residence, the refectory and the students’ union building were located. The name, a protest of sorts, was borrowed from Equatorial Guinea, the central African country whose capital is called Malabo. With a population of fewer that 700,000 and daily production of over 360 barrels of crude oil, the tiny country has the highest Gross National Income per capital in Africa. Yet, 70% of the population lives below the poverty level.

In fact, in the 1970s, the condition in the country ( especially the plantation workers)  was that of excruciating poverty largely caused by  the plundering of the national wealth by a dictator. The name Malabo was, therefore, the students’ way of capturing the physical deprivations they encountered in the early days. Hence, male students and alumni are called Malabites and the female ones, Malabresses. So, as the alumni made that journey back to their former school, they knew they were not just visiting the exceptionally neat and serene city of Calabar again, they were indeed seeing Malabo after many years. 

The good news is that unlike the real Malabo in Equatorial Guinea that corruption and neo-colonial exploitation has stultified its development, the Malabo in Calabar has good products to show for its years of transformation. From the period of the pioneer vice chancellor and   the eminent historian, Professor Emmanuel Ayankanmi Ayandele, to the current Professor Epoke, a measure of progress is undeniable. This was evident in the warmth with which Epoke received the alumni.

More significantly, the progress could be measured by the quality of the university’s products represented by the following goodwill ambassadors: Chief Godswill Akpabio, Governor Akwa Ibom State; Barr. Efiok Cobham, Deputy Governor, Cross River State; Senator Ita Enang, Chairman, Senate Committee on Rules and Business; Senator Bassey E. Otu, Chairman Senate Committee on Banking. Senator Victor Ndoma Egba SAN, Senate Leader, National Assembly; Mr. Ita Ekpenyong, Director-General, State Security Service; Hon. John Owan Enoh, member, House of Representatives; Hon. Dr (Mrs) Rose Okoji Oko, Member, House of Representatives; His Eminence, Dr. Sunday Ola Makinde, Prelate, Methodist Church of Nigeria; Udom Inoyo, Executive Director, Mobil Producing Nigeria and In-country HR Manager; Dr. Reuben Abati; Special Assistant on Media & Publicity to the President; Ekpo Una Owo Nta, Chairman, ICPC; Dr. A.B.C Orjiako, Chairman Ordrec Group; Barr (Mrs) Mfon Usoro, former DG, NIMASA.

Others are Rt. Hon. Bright Omokhdion, former Speaker, Edo State House of Assembly and Chairman, Board of Trustees UNICAL Alumni Association; Chief Joe Agi SAN, first Malabite to be elevated to the position of Senior Advocate of Nigeria; Hon. John Kennedy Opara, Executive Secretary, Nigeria Christians Pilgrims Commission; Dr. Barclays Ayakroma, Executive Secretary, Nigeria Institute of Cultural Orientation; Dr. (Mrs) Anthonia Ekpa, Director, Monitoring & Evaluation, Federal Ministry of Water Resources; Prof. Hillary Inyang, Duke Distinguished Professor of Environmental Engineering and Science, Professor of Earth Science and Director of the Global Institute for Energy and Environmental Systems at the University of North Carolina-Charlotte (he is currently the President of the International Society for Environmental Geotechnology (ISEG) and the Global Alliance for Disaster Reduction (GADR)); Chief Charles Okon, Corporate Security Services Manager, Nigeria LNG Ltd; Sunny Akpan, Finance & Administrative Manager, Catering International & Services, Siera Leone and Hon. Justice Emmanuel Akomoye Agim ORG, Chief Justice of The Gambia, Judge of the Supreme Court of Swaziland.

Also honoured are Stephanie Okereke, Actress, Director and Nollywood Producer; Keppy Bassey Ekpenyong, Actor, producer and movie director; Dr. (Mrs) Christy Atako, Director, Community & Rural Development, NDDC; Ibanga Akadi Udofia, HR Manager, Deep Water Projects, Shell Petroleum Development Company; John Odey, former Minister, Ministry of Environment; E.C Osondu, Professor of English, Rhode Island University, USA; Emem Isong, Screenwriter, Movie Producer/Director; Dr. Sam Amadi, Chairman, Nigeria Electricty Regulatory Council (NERC); Hon. Justice Franklin Edem, Ebonyi State Judiciary, Abakaliki; Hon. Justice M.E Njoku, Judge, Customary Court of Appeal Imo State Judiciary; Sir. Chika Chiejina, Chairman/CEO, Savannah Suites Group; Odigha Odigha, Chairman, Cross River Forestry Commission, and this reporter.

Not all the goodwill ambassadors were able to make the investiture. Senator Enang who responded on behalf of the awardees asked all alumni to work for the progress in their different locations in life. It is also remarkable that the awardees represented different periods in the history of the institution. For instance, one awardee was born 30 years ago when another one, this reporter, graduated from the university in the third set.

From the available facts, the above is just a tiny representation of distinguished men and women in different spheres of life who passed through Malabo. This  invariably compels some deep reflections about the quality of education in public educational institutions and the lingering question of funding. Doubtless, the Uncial story is a proof   that public educational institutions have produced quality graduates.  The debate on the funding of tertiary education in particular will  certainly continue. Unfortunately, in this debate the voice of those rationalising the failure of government to fund education is louder.

It is as if only private institutions, where education is now treated as any other  commodity, is the only sure source of quality education. For the majority of those in need of university but who could not afford the prohibitive fees in the private institutions, public schools will still remain the answer. A former colleague at THISDAY, who is now the Ogun state Commissioner for Information, Yusuph Olaniyonu, used to raise issues on this page about the need for former students to go back to their alma mater and see how they could help improve the condition of the schools. The moral challenge for graduates of public schools, especially those in position of power, is how to ensure that the conditions of the schools are such that their own children could make  a choice of applying for admission into those schools. 

In this regard, the resourceful step taken by Unical to attract the contributions of the alumni  to the development of the university should be welcome. As the alumni who made the journey back to Malabo observed, the university is in dire need of huge investment of funds to ensure production of quality graduates like those making waves in the public and private sectors today.